Auburn to play home-and-home with Clemson in 2016-17

AUBURN -- Auburn has agreed to a home-and-home series with Clemson in 2016 and 2017, Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs announced Wednesday.

Auburn will host Clemson on September 3, 2016 and travel to Clemson on September 9, 2017.

Auburn and Clemson have met 49 times in football, with AU holding a 34-13-2 lead in the series. Clemson has one the last two meetings, most recently in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game in 2012.

The meeting secures the Power 5 conference foe for Auburn, which plays at Kansas State this season and opens with Louisville in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff at the Georgia Dome in 2015. As part of the SEC's decision to keep an eight-game conference schedule, the conference requires its teams to play at least one non-conference game with an opponent from one of the five other power conferences or Notre Dame.

Auburn will open with at least two home games in 2016, first Clemson and then Arkansas State on Sept. 10. Having to play at rivals Georgia and Alabama in even-numbered years through 2025 undoubtedly played a role in Auburn wanting the series to be a home-and-home rather than a neutral site series.

Though the SEC schedule dates are not yet determined, Auburn will host Arkansas, LSU, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt and travel to Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Georgia and Alabama in 2016, with the SEC West site reversing and a road trip to Missouri in 2017.

Auburn 2017 schedule:Sept. 9 at ClemsonSEC schedule: Home - Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Georgia and Alabama. Away- Arkansas, LSU, Missouri and Texas A&M. Three non-conference games are still to be announced.

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